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or malice could draw from his words or actions, Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him." If he spake of his kingdom, it is sedition and rebellion, he is an enemy to Cesar;-if he calls God his Father, their malice construes it blasphemy, in making himself equal with God: and shall a consequence strained from our Savior's words by malicious Jews, be sustained an only warrant for a "doctrine of the utmost consequence, an article of faith most surely to be believed, on which the salvation of our souls depends?"

And that the consequence was strained, is evident from our Lord's reply, " Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came; and the scriptures cannot be broken: say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the SON OF GOD?" Where we may observe, (1.) That he doth neither plainly own or deny himself to be the true God.— Yet, (2.) If he had not been the true God, he would have renounced their conclusisn of equality with God; but he only denies the justness of their inference, that his calling himself the Son of God, was in consequence making himself God. Since he admits the one we may safely conclude he is God; and seeing he denies the other, we may fairly infer that his sonship does not denote his Deity. For (3.) it is plain, his design in the answer he gave, was to refute the calumny of the Jews, and shew the weakness of their inference, that the name Son of God does necessarily signify one equal with God. The argument our Lord uses here, is what is called á minori ad majus; putting the reason of his more unquestionable right to this title, upon the superiority of his character and

mission, or his more immediate commission from the Father, than those prophets, kings, and judges, who were called gods, from the word of God coming to them. The argument plainly runs thus, they who were originally in and of this world, were made prophets, teachers, and kings, merely by the word of God coming to them, receiving their commission by some voice, vision, divine message, or inspiration, and they were called gods: therefore the Messiah, who was not originally of this world, but was sanctified, or anointed, set apart, and sent immediately by GoD himself into this world for such incomparable purposes, may surely be called the Son of God, without danger of blasphemy. In short, if they were called gods, the Messiah may well be called the Son of God. (4.) It is very remarkable that though the Jews built part of their accusation upon his saying, “I and my Father are one," yet our Lord does not directly answer to these words, because they bear an intimation of his Deity: but applies himself to answer that part of it, taken from his calling God his Father, and himself the Son of God; denying the charge, and refuting their inference, no doubt, to teach them and us both, that the term Son of God, does not prove equality with God.

Indeed, if the character Son of God here, means his Deity, it must infer his equality with God, as the Jews inferred: but besides the difficulty, or rather impossibility of the divine nature of Christ being sanctified, or anointed, and sent; which he says he was as a Son; it plainly destroys the whole force of our blessed Savior's argument, and concludes his defence trifling; and consequently, leaves the accusation of the malicious Jews in full force against the Lord Jesus Christ!

To illustrate this a little further, it should be observed, that the question betwixt our Lord and the Jews, was not whether the Messiah was a divine person or not; but whether he to whom they were speaking, was the Messiah or not. Therefore, when he assumed an epithet, which, as used in the old testament, was characteristical of the Messiah, they charge him with blasphemy; for he, as they supposed, being only a mere man, had assumed a title which the scriptures appropriated to the promised Messiah, whom the same scriptures call the mighty God. "The God of the whole earth shall he be called." To be the Messiah, and to be the Son of God, was reckoned by the Jews, and may be by us christians, the same. The psalmist applies them both to the sanie person in the second psalm; and in the new testament the same arguments are used to prove the one as the other. The old testament pointed forth; and the apostles preached the Messiah, the power and the wisdom of God. As in the former, Son of God was a known character of the Messiah, so the angel intimated under that term to the virgin, that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. "The holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the SON OF GOD." This she understood to be the promised Messiah, and therefore says in her song, "He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."

Now, though the Jews, through their traditions, and hopes of a Messiah, that would bring them temporal glory, had not so clear views of the divinity of the promised Messiah, nor the spiritual nature of his kingdom, as the old testament pointed out; yet from the known characters of the Messiah, in these oracles, and the special

application of the term Son to him, when they find our Lord assuming those to himself, whose appearance was so unlike the Messiah they expected, might charge him with blasphemy through the violence of their prejudice. To be the Son of God by way of eminence, was to be the Messiah, and vice versa in the Jews sense. "Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Art thou the Christ, or Messiah, the Son of the blessed? Thou shalt call his name Jesus,and he shall be called the Son of the Highest." This, one would think, is more evidently the sense of the Jews, in their dispute with our Lord, than that they drew a logical inference from the nature and quality of neration, considered absolutely in GoD.

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The third and fourth verses of Paul's introduction to his epistle to the Romans, is another passage that has been tortured by all the art of criticism, to make it prove natural sonship. It is scarely credible, what different turns of interpretation the words have got to make them answer that purpose; whereas, if the scope be attended to, it is both plain in itself, and evidently points forth another meaning than is commonly put upon it. The whole paragraph reads thus: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared (determined) to be the Son of GoD with power, according to (by) the Spirit of holiness, (and) by the resurrection from the dead: by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for (to the) obedience to (of) the faith among all nations for his name: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ."

In this introduction, the apostle calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ; and to invite the saints at Rome to give proper attention to what he was about to write to them, he points forth, in several distinct particulars, the truth and importance of his master's character, and concludes with their particular interest therein. He proves and illustrates the authencity of the gospel he was appointed to preach concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of GOD, (1.) From the authority of GOD, who had sent the prophets under the old testament, to proclaim by promise the advent of his Son. (2.) From the accomplishment of these promises in raising up Jesus of the seed of David, according to the flesh, which was so often foretold: and as the great dispute at that time was, whether that same Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of GOD and Savior, that GoD promised by the prophets, he proceeds to put that matter beyond doubt.

First, he says, it was determined by the Spirit of holiness. (1.) It is manifest that an extraordinary measure of the Spirit attended him in all the great things he did, which are just so many attestations from God of the truth of his character, as both himself and his apostles frequently alledge. "For* he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of GOD: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of GOD, then the kingdom of GOD is come unto you, GOD anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for GOD was with him. Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the

*John iii. 34.

+ Matt. xii. 28.

Acts x. 38. and i, 2.